All kinds of minerals



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

INOCH MOULD, OF WHITE BARN, NEAR NE\\'CASILE, COI'XTY OF STAF- FORD, EN'IrLAND.

APPLlANCE FOR BREAKING LOOSE OR SPLlTTlNG ALL KlNDS 0F MINERALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 398,742, dated February 26, 1889. Application filed February 16, 1888. Eerial No. 264,309. (No model.) Patented in England July 13, 1886, No. 9,123.

To [ZZZ 107mm it may concern..-

lzle it known that I, ENOCH MOULD, certified colliery manager, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at \Vhit e Barn, near Newcastle, in the county of Stat'tord, England, have invented an Improved Am'ilianee for Breaking Loose or Splitting all Kinds of. Minerals, (for which I have obtained a pat ,nt. in Great Britain, No. 9,123, hearing date July 13, 1836,) of which the Following is a specitication.

This lllYOlltlOll relates to certain new and useful improvements in machines for breaking and splitting coal, and particularly to that class of devices in which are employed wedges that are inserted in a hole first bored in the coal and expanded by means of force applied to said wedges in a longitudinal direction; and the object of this invention to provide such a device wherein the expansive force of the wedges is exerted at several distinct points simultaneously.

To this end my invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter full y described and specifically claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view showing my improved device in position within a vein of coal; Fig 2, a central longitudinal section of my improved device; Fig. 3, a similar view showing the wedges in their expanded positions; Fig. 4, a similar v i cw showing the d eviee when adapted to be operated by hynbaulic power; Fig. 5, an enlarged side elevation of the wedges 3 Figs. 6 and '7, top and bottom views, respectively, ot the wedges shown in Fig. Figs. 8 and fl, enlarged views of the ram shown in Fig. *i'.

Referring to the drawings, the letter (Z indicates the expanding wedges, which gradually increase in widtht'rom the bottom toward the top, and e the cent ral. wedges, which gradually diminish in width from the bottom upward. The central wedges, e, are centrally bored and screwthreaded, and through them is passed a screwthreaded rod, g, which is titted at its lower end into a block, f, so that it may rotate therein, being held in the block by two pins or rivets which enter a groove in the rod. The central wedges, e, are slipped upon the rod g, one above the other, and the large end of each of said wedges rests direetly upon the small end of the wedge next below it, and the expanding wedges (I (Z are disposed about the central wedges, so that the narrow ends of the wedges (I lie superimposed upon the wide ends of the wedges c. When the device above described is inserted in a hole bored in a vein of coal and the red at rotatml b Y means of a s tanner wrench or other tool, the central wedges, e, are caused to rise on the rod g, and the wedges d are spread or expanded so as to considerably increase the diameter or width of the tool, and thus cause the mass of coal to split, and since there are several series ot. separate wedges superimposed one upon the other and all expanded simultaneously the coal will not: only be broken from the mass contained in the vein, but, owing to the wedges expanding at several different points, will be broken in many different pieces. The arrangement of several separately-acting wedges, as shown, also enables any wedge to give slightly to inequalities in the density of the coal without risk of injury to the apparatus.

In Figs. 4:, S, and 9 I have illustrated one method of operating the device by means of hydraulic power. In this form of construction the device is titted at its lower end with a cylinder, n, and ram 0. The ram hasahole bored therein from end to end, and the rod g is similarly bored and screwed into the plungcr o, as shown. The outer end of the rod g is designed to be connected to a pump, and the pressure of the water drives the ram and the central wedges outward, and thereby expands the wedges, as before.

I am aware that a single pair of concentric wedges operated by a screw-rod has heretofore. been proposed for use in splitting coal, and also that wedges have been rigidly connected in series for joint operation to accomplish the same work; but those I do not claim, and my invention differs therefrom in comprising an inner and an outer series of separate oppositely-pointed wedges simultaneously acting at distinct and separate points, whereby the coal is broken into many pieces at different points Without liability of injury to the Wedges or their operati n g mechanism.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is In mechanism for breaking and splitting coal, the combination, With the screw-threaded rod g, of the inner series of separate centrallybored and internally-threaded Wedges, 6, snperimposed one upon another around said rod and having their points turned outward all in the same direction, and the outer series of expanding Wedges, cl, surrounding the Wedges e and having their points turned inward in a direction opposite to that of the inner Wedges, e, whereby all the outer Wedges, d, are simultaneously expanded at distinct points by the outward longitudinal movement of said inner Wedges, substantially as described.

ENOCH M OULD.

lVitn esses:

J. B. SHIRLEY, Basford, Stoke.

W. A. COWLIsHAW, Clerk to Paddock d2 Sons, 801%., Henley. 

